Ireland's leading sand and gravel millionaire, Mr Sean Quinn, has just received planning permission from An Bord Pleanala for a factory which will produce one million tonnes of cement a year, within sight of the Shannon-Erne waterway.
The new plant will be located near Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, just south of the Border with Co Fermanagh, where Mr Quinn has been operating another facility for 10 years. This will close as soon as the new one is built in two years' time.
The site is less than a kilometre from the Woodford River, which forms part of the Ballinamore-Ballyconnel canal - restored some years ago at a cost of £31 million, with EU aid, to link the Shannon and Erne navigations.
Apart from the coal-fired kiln, several silos and the main production area, the £50 million cement plant will have a flue stack nearly 370 feet high. But An Bord Pleanala said it believed this would not "seriously injure the amenities of the area."
In confirming Cavan County Council's decision to grant permission for the project, it specified that Quinn Quarries Ltd would have to submit "visual impact mitigation measures" for approval by the local authority to protect the canal corridor.
The council's decision had been appealed by a Galway-based environmental activist, Mr Peter Sweetman. He claimed it would involve trading carbon dioxide emissions between states and did not accord with sustainable development.
Earthwatch also made a submission saying the Quinn group, by replacing an old cement plant in Northern Ireland with a new one just across the Border in the Republic, would conflict with the Kyoto Protocol to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
The plant also requires a pollution licence from the Environmental Protection Agency, covering emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and soot.